Space-tech could make life easier for diabetics   Nicole Schmiedel from Braunschweig University of Arts, Germany, has designed an insulin pump as a trendy-looking wristwatch. The insulin pump is electrically autonomous thanks to the use of piezo-electric technology originally developed for European satellites. In space applications they are used for micro-positioning and vibration damping of optics embedded on satellites, such as those incorporated in the MIDAS instrument onboard ESA’s Rosetta comet chaser.   German design student Nicole Schmiedel from Braunschweig University of Arts in Germany has created a trendy-looking wristwatch containing an innovative ultra-light insulin pump to help people with type 1 diabetes. The insulin pump is electrically autonomous thanks to the use of piezo-electric technology originally developed for European satellites.   To help people with type 1 diabetes the German design student Nicole Schmiedel has designed a novel insulin pump named COR as a trendy looking wristwatch. In the same line she also designed a lancet to contain test strips. Piezo-electric transducer space technology – squeezing electricity out of a crystal     Rosetta swung by Mars on 25 February 2007.   The innovative ultra-light insulin pump designed by Nicole Schmiedel as a wristwatch produces its own electricity thanks to the use of piezo-electric technology originally developed for European satellites.   Stefan Linke from INVENT, Germany, presents the piezo-electric transducer technology at the European Space Technology Transfer Conference 2007, an initiative of ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme Office. The piezo-electric transducer technology was originally developed for space programmes back in the 1990s. Onboard the Rosetta satellite this technology is used for micro-adjusting the positions of the MIDAS instrument as well as for its vibration damping. Release date: 27 February 2008